Student self-evaluation and satisfaction with the educational experience in pediatric dentistry at Damascus University

Higher education institutions aim to improve the education system and ensure full transparency. To achieve this, it's important to assess self-efficacy and learner satisfaction to establish a positive academic environment.Materials and methods In this cross-sectional study, an online questionnaire was distributed using Google Forms to all 700 fifth-year students in the Department of Pediatric Dentistry at Damascus University. The first questionnaire included 43 questions distributed over eight main axes to assess students' self-assessment of their practical and theoretical curriculum knowledge.The second questionnaire, the Learner Satisfaction Scale, included 25 questions over five main axes to assess students' satisfaction.Descriptive statistics, including frequency distribution and percentages, were calculated. The mean responses on the Likert scale were used to determine the direction of the responses, and the standard deviation was used to measure the homogeneity of the responses.Results Out of 700 fifth-year students, 582 responded to the questionnaire, resulting in a response rate of 83.14%.The results of the first questionnaire showed that the highest self-assessment score was for behavior management techniques ( <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><mml:mrow><mml:mn>2.5122</mml:mn> <mml:mo>±</mml:mo> <mml:mn>0.24559</mml:mn></mml:mrow> </mml:math> ), while the trauma axis received the lowest evaluation score ( <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><mml:mrow><mml:mn>1.3966</mml:mn> <mml:mo>±</mml:mo> <mml:mn>0.45309</mml:mn></mml:mrow> </mml:math> ).The average overall satisfaction rating in the second questionnaire was <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><mml:mrow><mml:mn>2.8127</mml:mn> <mml:mo>±</mml:mo> <mml:mn>0.60762</mml:mn></mml:mrow> </mml:math> (indicating "neutrality"), while the remaining four axes of the learner satisfaction scale received an average rating higher than 3.40 (indicating "Agreement").Conclusion The evaluation of students' self-efficacy concluded that the practical and theoretical educational curriculum stipulated in the teaching plan is sufficient, except for the trauma axis. Additionally, the study found that students have a good level of satisfaction with the educational experience at Damascus University.